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Abuse in Ohio’s youth prisons is at crisis stage

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The June 17Dispatcheditorial “A disturbing revelation” examined a new Bureau of Justice
Statistics report that found that Ohio's youth-detention facilities had among the highest rates of
sexual abuse in the country. Unfortunately, rather than focus on what the state can and must do to
stop this abuse, the newspaper cast doubt on the trustworthiness of the youths who report
it.

This attitude is disappointingly common, and contradicts the findings of the most-recent and
previous government studies.

The editorial noted that Ohio’s juvenile system detains “only hard-core delinquents,” the
presumption being that troubled kids are more likely to lie about being sexually abused. If this
were true, then facilities in other states that house troubled youths also would have similarly
high rates. Yet the new Bureau of Justice Statistics report found that many facilities nationwide
had low reporting rates; indeed, youths in Delaware, Massachusetts and New York reported no
incidents at all. Either kids in Ohio are more prone to lying than kids in other states, which
seems highly unlikely, or the state has a massive problem on its hands.

Let’s hope that the state’s leaders take bold steps to address the crisis, rather than pretend
it doesn’t exist.